Windows 8 Community Preview - Download Now

[caveman-jim]

Want to test drive Windows 8? Here you go!

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso

Today is a big day for the Windows team. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain a few moments ago, we unveiled the Windows 8 Consumer Preview to our partners and press. Based on a broad range of feedback, we have made over 100,000 code changes and the Consumer Preview represents a refined product ready for broad and daily usage by those of you willing to test a pre-release OS. You can download the Consumer Preview starting now at http://preview.windows.com. If you tried the Windows 8 Developer Preview, then you are going to be delighted to see a broad range of product changes and improvements based on a feedback from many sources.

Windows 8 reimagines Windows, from the chipset to the experience. With the Developer Preview we focused on presenting the new APIs and amazing new tools for developers. Today’s Consumer Preview is focused on a broader audience, and along with improvements to the WinRT APIs based on developer feedback, we are introducing the full user experience, the Windows Store for apps, and early previews of some first- and third-party apps.

More details on the Windows MSDN Blog.

[Razeus]

Most excellent.

[caveman-jim]

downloading

[Razeus]

downloading when I get home. I knew I should have let the computer on today.

[noko]

Downloading now. Free OS (for awhile) on a relatively new system build .

[noko]

Done, now I have to wait for the hard drive. Probably install tomorrow.

[dmanna]

I would like to try it but it will be a major pain for me to migrate over this time. I could put it on another drive just for fun but its not really fun. So I guess I won't. Unless pro tools 9 is fully supported with Windows 8 I might just skip it all together and wait for whatever Microsoft has up their sleeve. Windows 7 is fantastic I don't see a lot of people upgrading to Windows 8 for the hell of it. Unless there is like DX12 or something which I have not heard any news on that.

[Verrul Daenyr]

11.1 which is just fine tuning for the most part. plus tweaks to work better with lower ram ie tablets.

[noko]

I would like to try it but it will be a major pain for me to migrate over this time. I could put it on another drive just for fun but its not really fun. So I guess I won't. Unless pro tools 9 is fully supported with Windows 8 I might just skip it all together and wait for whatever Microsoft has up their sleeve. Windows 7 is fantastic I don't see a lot of people upgrading to Windows 8 for the hell of it. Unless there is like DX12 or something which I have not heard any news on that.

I think Win8 has a phone interface getting rid of the tried and true Start button, fast menu system. Will find out hopefully later today.

[noko]

WTH? Transferring 131gb from one SATA drive to another, Steam apps -> 1 Day, 60kb/s . This reminds of Vista when it first came out. Just doing a few directories at a time 30-60mb/s .

How does one shutdown Win8 besides pressing the off button on the computer?

Desktop or should I say Start is cartoon pictures of mostly aps or programs I am not even interested in. Opening them is easy, closing them I am not sure how to do other then hit win+tab key and right click on the small app window and then select close, very easy having 10-20 aps all running in the background and one would not even know it. Will have to play around with interface for awhile to see if it is a step up or down. Plus figure out the ins-outs of it.

Network adaptor was working fine then all of a sudden stopped working. Had to remove hardware then have win8 find it again . USB plug in adaptor.

the opening desktop theme looks like a first graders crayon art work, downloaded a fractal theme which is kinda cool. Couldn't find option for a Win 7 interface but then I wouldn't learn this one. Probably in the theme settings anyways.

I can't open up Comcast mail, Xfinity just gives a busy counter that never goes away.

Not much else to report other then that the AMD driver and the 6670 appear to be working good.

Definitely Beta software.

[mabran]

I really don't know what MS is thinking making a Metro the primary UI. I am not going to sit at my desk with a 27inch display trying to use an interface designed for a touch screen.

On a tablet or phone I can see this as I appreciate it on my HD7 but for a desktop OS it better be able to be fully disabled and have a normal desktop standard.

Metro hits a home run on portable devices but for a full desktop system is less than optimal. a 4.6 inch touch screen is much easier to clean of fingerprints than a 27 inch display (if I had touch on it).

Now if Kinect works with it then I will be a little more accepting but for now non touch displays and win8 are not where it's at IMO.

[Razeus]

Metro is completely un-useable as a desktop system.

[Melchior]

Shutdown is the right hand corner/settings/power that gives you acess to the shutdown and restart at least. There may be sleep hibernate somewhere but I can't find them, may need to do a regular install rather than a VM. Been using it about a half hour via Virtualbox, and aside from the clunky shutdown menu thing I like it. Metro is... well at least it's not hard to go to the normal desktop, which feels like home. A home someone remodeled while I was gone and moved the damn bathroom to a different floor, but still home.

[noko]

Shutdown is the right hand corner/settings/power that gives you acess to the shutdown and restart at least. There may be sleep hibernate somewhere but I can't find them, may need to do a regular install rather than a VM. Been using it about a half hour via Virtualbox, and aside from the clunky shutdown menu thing I like it. Metro is... well at least it's not hard to go to the normal desktop, which feels like home. A home someone remodeled while I was gone and moved the damn bathroom to a different floor, but still home.

Thanks, seems really cumbersome at this time. I can't really judge the OS yet until I get several months on it. First impressions can be rather misleading but the Metro start page just seems like a huge collection of unorganized (except for being tiled) icons. Desktop is OK, missing the Start menu doesn't help.

[Melchior]

I agree for the most part. While I can kind of see the direction they're trying to take the interface it's not quite there yet. The shutdown menu is unnecessarily hard to find, and I'm kind of missing the start menu with the convenient pinned applications, fast, responsive, intuitive to use. Trying to play with some of the built in metro apps feels clunky, like the weather app. It's not immediately apparent how to leave it once it's open, pressing escape doesn't do anything, there's no red x, alt-F4 works but all the right clicking and dragging and smashing the keyboard doesn't give you any response.